PvP Information and Discussion

Originally Posted by ArenaNet

In Player vs. Player (PvP) matches, small teams of players compete to eliminate each other and capture strategic objectives on a map. Holding a capture point and killing enemies improves your team’s score. The first team to reach the score limit—or the team with the highest score when time runs out—wins the match.

We can create enormous diversity in the PvP format by offering a wide variety of maps to fight over and by changing the strategic objectives. In one match, players must battle over a ruined pirate ship, while in another match they may have to destroy an enemy siege weapon. Of course, there are always opposing players to contend with…

Everyone plays at the same level in Guild Wars 2 PvP, where skill and strategy provide players with the winning edge. To ensure a level playing field, when players take their characters into PvP, they are set to maximum level and given access to all the necessary skills and gear they will need to meet their opponents on even terms.

In “hot joinable” PvP, new and casual players can easily hop into an ongoing match and start playing right away without worrying about setting up teams beforehand. Competitive players looking for more organized play can try out tournament mode, which pits teams of five players against each other in a variety of monthly and player-run tournaments.

We’ve designed a PvP experience that’s fun and easy for all players, regardless of experience. All we need is you!

I felt like we needed a dedicated PvP discussion thread. To start off, some detail about Guild Wars 2 PvP. This is going to be an amalgamation of my own thread and Iryne's.

Hot Join 1v1 to 8v8: This is the casual side of structured PvP. A great place to experiment with builds, learn the maps, and try out a PvP game against other players. These games can be joined by the player mid match and can be left at any time. Players will be matched based on a similar amount of total Glory earned.Tournaments 5v5: These games will be accessible through a separate browser that will require 5 people to queue up for pvp together. Played on the same maps as the “Hot Join” games, the teams with the higher level of coordination and skill will have clear advantages.WvW: up to 2000 players. Three servers battle in the Mists. Players can siege structures such as Keeps and Towers with siege weapons, battle over resources, and win rewards for their world.

Guild Wars 2 PvP is divided into two separate parts: Structured PvP and World vs. World vs. World. Structured PvP (sPvP) is further divided into Hot-join PvP, and Competitive PvP.

In sPvP, all players are only equal footing. Everyone is boosted to level 80, given the max amount of trait points, all utilities, and access to all the same gear. Progression through sPvP is done by cosmetic upgrades, not statistical ones. No PvE boost item is available in sPvP, nor can any item in sPvP be used for PvE. Player statistics, such as games played per profession, are tracked.

In sPvP, you earn a currency called glory which is used to purchase equipment. The amount of glory you earn seems to be equal to the amount of rank points you get. Rank is simply a way to gauge the experience of a player, and every rank you will be given random PvP rewards.

The amount of glory you earn is dependent on your success in the battleground. This mostly complete table shows point distributions towards personal glory, and team score (you need 500 team score to win)

Originally Posted by Lusitan

Team Score

Map

Objective

Points

Foefire

Guild Lord Kill

100

Forest

Chieftain

25

Forest

Svanir

25

All

"Finish Him" Kill

5

All

Capture Point Controlled

1 per CP every 1.8sec

Team reachs victory at 500 points

Personal Glory Score

Map

Objective

Points

Khylo

Trebuchet Hit

3

Khylo

Trebuchet Repair

15

Khylo

Trebuchet Destroyed

Foefire

Guild Lord Kill

25

Foefire

NPC's Kill

Forest

Forest Creature Kill

25

All

"Finish Him" Kill

5

All

Teammate Revival

10

All

Objective Assaulter

10

All

Objective Neutralizer

10

All

Objective Defender

10

All

Point Capture

10

All

Skirmisher

10

Top Player on each of the individual Objectives receives 5 glory per award won

At the end of each game the glory and PvP Exp is calculated by: Personal score + Win Bonus + Top Player = Glory & PvP Exp

The first part of sPvP is Hot-join PvP, which is a very simple, casual, "pick up and play" type mode. It may be played with anywhere from two to sixteen players. To enter Hot join PvP, you simply use a PvP located in the Mists and select a game listed. You may enter and exit freely, and you are awarded glory depending on your success in the game. The rewards for Hot-join PvP are noticeably smaller than the other form of PvP.

Competitive PvP revolves around the use of organized, group play and tournaments. Tournaments are always 5v5, and consist of eight teams, with three rounds total. This is single elimation. Tournaments can be automatic, or player driven.

All sPvP maps are conquest based, with some secondary objective. In conquest, the first team to attain 500 points, or more, wins. Points are attained by holding capture points, which award 1 point per ~two seconds, from player kills, which award five points per, and potentially from secondary objectives.

Structured PvP maps:

BATTLE FOR KHYLO

This is a conquest mode map, which is based off a battle in the Guild Wars. It has three capture points as the primary objective, and two trebuchets as the secondary mechanic. Each team has their own trebuchet, and trebuchets can be destroyed by the other team. They may also be repaired through the use of an environmental weapon located near the enemies spawn that must be carried to your trebuchet. The purpose of trebuchets is to alter the layout of the map by destroying destructible terrain, and also providing support for team mates by bombarding a contested capture point. Trebuchets deal around 10k damage per shot.

Originally Posted by Iryne

In this map, mobility is king. Because of the close quarters and vertical aspect, teleporting skills and stealth are both very powerful tools to gain access to the central point. AoE is also very effective if you can catch several people in a hallway or ramp, causing significant damage to everyone within the radius. This particular tactic is fantastic for defending the lower level of the Clocktower.

Originally Posted by Iryne

The slope up to the Windmill and stairs up to the Mansion are notorious choke points, especially if you only have melee weapons equipped. Ranged classes can cause huge damage to you on your way up or worse, will immobilise you and your group and rain down area of effect damage. Try to attack these capture points from both sides.

Trebuchet control is another important aspect in this map. Due to the extremely high damage that this can lay down having someone to man this weapon is critical to a good teams success. Almost as critical, is having someone on your team to harass the player manning the opposing teams trebuchet. Generally you will want a high burst damage character in this role.

Shortly:
- Don’t always stay together, split the team down to attack multiple points. Don’t be afraid to pair up or go solo and break away from the pack
- Use the Trebuchet, it deals massive damage and also knocks opponents down. The Windmill and the Mansion are on range, so you can provide support to your team who are fighting at capture points.
- Don’t ignore enemy trebuchet, destroy opponents trebuchet. This gives valuable time to secure capture points or kill anyone trying to secure the repair kit. Destroy their trebuchet even if they are not using it.
- Don’t camp the clocktower, clocktower is usually first target of trebuchets, you do not want to be there when they fire it. Get in, get it captured and get out (preferably through the windows).
- Don’t always fight, going into fight that you know will lose will only provide the opposing team. Heading in the opposite direction to another control point will stretch the opposing team and provide you with valuable points.
- Use the Clocktower roof, the highest point on the map allows you to gain a birdseye view of your surroundings. From here you know instantly who is at what capture point and where groups of opposing players are heading.
- Don’t standstill, you will be doing a disservice to your team by just staying in one control point. Covering an area, from Clocktower to Windmill or Clocktower to Mansion will be much more effective.

FORESTS OF NIFHELM

This is a conquest mode map, and is a norn based map featuring a prominent character in Eye of the North: Svanir. There are three capture points, and two powerful NPCs as a secondary mechanic. Getting the killing blow on one of these NPCs grants that team 25 points, and a buff that increases all stats by 50. They have a three minute respawn time.

Originally Posted by Iryne

Control of the large central area in this map will be key to success. The area just south of the keep is wide open with multiple routes leading into it from all directions. This area will be a critical battleground for large team skirmishes, and maintaining dominance of it will grant easy access to the two NPCs as well as the central control position. Because of the amount of points that they grant, prioritizing the boss NPCs will also be very beneficial. On this map it is possible to only hold one point for the majority of the game as long as you maintain control of the NPCs. Keeping spawn timers on the neutral bosses will also ensure you can gain the maximum amount of points from them.

Due to the wide open areas on this map, team fighting will play a much more integral role. Having a good mix of offensive and defensive players with plenty of CC will allow a team to dominate the center of the map. Defence of the outer points is much easier if you control the center due of the long routes that the opposing team will have to take to traverse the map. This also gives the added benefit of having control of at least one NPC. If you are attacking the center point remember that a team can easily be ambushed as they are attacking a NPC boss. The neutrals hit extremely hard and can easily kill a few people if they are CC'd or bursted down by a player. You can use this time to swiftly attack the weakened NPC to steal the points or use the confusion to assault an opposing control point.

Originally Posted by Iryne

There are several choke points in Niflhel that are incredibly dangerous. These are primarily the tiny paths through to Henge and Mine that lead off from the centre of the map as well as the small openings through to the water ways, at the base of the westerly keep steps and before the river crossing at the easterly side of the keep. Being caught in either of these locations will leave you incredibly vulnerable, so be careful.

Shortly:
- Don’t forget the NPC’s, 50 points & team wide buff isn’t something to be ignored
- Don’t camp the keep, the Keep is vulnerable from all sides. It is more effective to capture it and move on than constantly trying to fight it out.
- Don’t get trapped in open play, area between both bases, near the beach, tends to have constant battle where you get trapped into a cycle of spawning, exiting and dying. It only gives opposite team free score. Leave through the exit towards the capture points and ignore zerg.
- Use caution, capture areas have height disadvantage. Have a spotter to call out when someone is approaching, kill the attacker and return back to the capture point.
- Don’t just use the stairs, use the rear path to the Keep. It gives height advantage and keeps melee out of play.

LEGACY OF THE FOEFIRE

This is a conquest mode map, which is a drawback Guild Wars 1's Guild vs Guild. It is heavily charr influenced as well. It has three capture points, and features a guild lord, and guards, as the secondary mechanic. Guild lords are located inside the enemy team's spawn, and protected by gates. Killing a guild lord rewards your team with 100 points. Killing guards does not award your team anything.

WvWvW

Originally Posted by Iryne

PvP battle between three different servers, or worlds. Players can siege structures such as Keeps and Towers with siege weapons, battle over resources, and win rewards for their world. There are 4 maps total, 3 Borderlands maps, and 1 Eternal Battleground map.

WvW MAP (click to see better)

BORDERLANDS
The Borderlands are three identical maps in World versus World, with each map belonging to one of the participating worlds. Players on their own borderlands get a small buff as a "home advantage".

Here is a typical Borderlands map where you can see how the resource camps, towers and keep are placed. Invading worlds have waypoints at the bottom left and right side of the map. None of the waypoints can be captured - they are guarded by legendary defenders that one shot enemy players. Waypoints are also unuseable by enemy players - they will appear contested to all but the world that owns that waypoint.

At the bottom half of the map, you have two towers, one near each inviading world's waypoint. You also have three supply camps, one near near tower and the third at the bottom middle section of the map, between the two world’s waypoint.

Moving up, you will see two keeps on the left and right side of the map and a third keep positioned almost in the middle of the map, right in front of the home world's waypoint. This keep is flanked by two nearby towers and since they are all near the home world's waypoint, it give them somewhat of a home map advantage. There are three supply camps at the top half of the map as well, one near each tower and the third all the way up in the north, near the Orb of Power.

If you count up the objectives, each Borderlands map would have 3 keeps, 4 towers and 6 supply camps.

Orb of Power
Each Borderlands map has a single Orb of Power. It is initially located at the very north end of each map in a special place called Cradle of Power. This Cradle of Power is initially protected by an invulnerable force field that cannot be removed until you defeat the guardian – L83 champion Keeper of the Orb that deals massive damage.

Once the champion is defeated, the force field drops and anyone can retrieve the orb. Each keep you world control on the map has an Altar of Power where you can place the orb. You have a 15 minutes window to place this orb on this Altar before it returns to the Cradle of Power so make sure you world has a keep under control before capturing the orb.

Once the orb is placed on the altar, your keep will gain 5% boost to maximum HP. Since there are three borderland maps, your world could potentially end up with 15% boost to maximum HP if you capture all three orbs.

ETERNAL BATTLEGROUNDS
Eternal battlegrounds is the middle map where all three worlds start off on equal grounds. There is a massive Stonemist Castle in the middle that three worlds compete to capture. It is a triangular map, with 1 keep, 4 towers and 2 supply camps on each angle, totaling 1 castle, 3 keeps, 12 towers and 6 supply camps on the entire map.

Stonemist Castle under attack of siege weapons.

OBJECTIVES AND GOAL OF WvW
There are three types of objectives that are available for capture on the WvW maps. They are the keeps, towers, and supply camps. The central map, Eternal Battlegrounds, also features a massive keep called Stonemist Castle that give additional points for capture. Every 5 minutes, all the objectives that a world controls are counted and points are generated which are added to the cumulative war score for each world.

The cumulative war score is erased every two weeks and used to generate rankings for the next match. Along the way, there are certain war score thresholds that when reached will unlock temporary bonuses for everyone from that world for both PvE and PvP activities.

SUPPLY
Supply is used for constructing siege weapons, upgrading structures and repairing damaged walls&gates. Supply is stored in Supply Depots in resource camps, towers, keeps and Stonemist Castle. Players can interact with any (friendly) supply depot to take up to 10 units of supply from it, as long as depots is still stocked.

Resource camps produce supply and automatically send out NPC dolyak caravans, which restock friendly nearby structures with 35 or 70 supplies per run (depending on the level of the caravan). Supply caravans can be intercepted by enemy players. Resource camps feature their own supply depots, which refill over time.

Supply caravans can be upgraded via the resource camps' upgrades. Without upgrades, they can be easily killed by a lone player. If you kill an enemy supply caravan's dolyak, you can loot supplies from them.

SIEGE WEAPONS
Requires a Blueprint for its construction. These blueprints can be purchased at Siegemasters (there is usually one in the place where you first enter a map). Building requires supplies.

DEFENSIVE STRUCTURES
Acquired from the quartermaster within the keep/tower. Do not require a blueprint to build, but requires supplies to work.

Cannons: have a pretty good range. It rotates where you place a skill’s target. This weapon can be used against a group of enemies, and as a additional ability you can freeze the enemies or cause the opponent to bleed..

Mortars: long range weapons. You can load two types of ammunition: Exploding Shells and Incendiary shells. The Exploding Shells will make a huge fire cloud but it will promptly disappear, while the Incendiary shells will make a small fire explosion but it will last a few seconds.

Boiling pots of oil: placed above gates and walls. Are effective against Flame Rams. There are two attacking skills: an oil skill that drops burning boiling oil which causes significant damage and a tar skill that decreases player’s movement speed

Shortly:
- Keep the supply flowing: You need it to upgrade your camps, towers and keeps. You need it to build siege weapons. You need it to repair gates and walls. Every world that wants to succeed should make sure that they keep their supply camp & caravans safe. Make sure that you have your personal 10 supply with you.
- Stay with the group: In order for towers and keeps to be taken, you are going to need a large group of players. You just aren’t going to take a keep with 2 people in prime WvW hours, feel free to do it against the night watch. Watch your chat or search your map for the Squad Commander and join the squad.
- Defend what you control: You don’t need 100 people in the tower to defend it, usually 2-5 will hold it. Here is where you can leave the group play if you want to, and form a smaller party of defenders. Share the cost of upgrades between all the defenders. Simply put, you buy 1 upgrade, someone else buys another. When the attacking force does come stay up front and harass them with ranged attacks or defensive siege weapons.
- Trebuchet’s/Mortar’s need spotters at longer distances. You will most likely be firing into fog if you shoot it at long range, so make sure you have a spotter to tell you where the ball of destruction landed.- Siege weapons don’t move and they can’t be taken down. Don’t waste a lot of money and supply just taking 1 little tower.- Monsters in each map have a chance at dropping blueprints, so run around and kill them if you don’t want to buy one.- Don’t run around with the Orb of Power unless you know where you are going.- Don’t forget to take towers and keeps in your guilds name. Your guild will get influence from players defending it.- Expect to run around a long time until someone upgrades a keep with a waypoint.

Combat:

One of the most important aspects of PvP is the combat system in Guild Wars 2. There are no dedicated roles in Guild Wars 2, such as healing or tanking. Everyone must, to a degree, support themselves. However, a profession may build or specialize in certain roles, which take the form of support, control, condition damage, burst damage, point defense, map roaming, and so on. No profession may be dedicated to a specific function. A support built guardian will be capable of damage, as a burst warrior will be capable of supporting himself. Due to the diverse system Guild Wars 2 offers, each profession is capable of fulfilling a multitude of roles. No single profession will have a cookiecutter build that they must use, nor will a single build be best for that specific role. For example, for warrior burst damage you may use a triple axe/shield build, or a Greatsword + Axe/shield, or Greatsword + Rifle, and with options for traits and utilities. A warrior condition based build may use sword/axe + longbow, sword/sword + hammer, and so on.

The basic mechanics of Guild Wars 2's combat are as follows:
Your 1-5 abilities are determined by your weapon choice. With the exception of the thief, primary weapons determine the first three skills, offhand the last two. Two hand weapons determine all five. Slot 6 is a dedicated healing ability. Slots 7-9 are utility skills. Slot 10 is an elite skill. With the exception of engineers and elementalists, all professions may have two weapon sets.

To succeed, you must learn how to recognize, and react to specific abilities. You may use your dodge ability, an invulnerability, an interrupt, immunity to CC, a block, and so on, to avoid things. This is incredibly important to learn and master.

Additionally, there is a mechanic known as "combos" where two abilities interact with each other. This has not been fully fleshed out and utilized by the current PvP meta. However, some common ones include AoE swiftness, or AoE stealth.

A list of finishers and fields per profession, per type. Click to enlarge.

I did not do tournaments with voice communication, I did some sPVP during BWE3 with my Necro with just a basic minion build.. it was quite fun.

I did mainly WvW in BWE1 and 2 and had a blast in it, I found it really enjoyable (Except when your server is getting creamed).

I feel that in WvW the limited number of waypoints available can make it a hassle when you die, and it's quite a turn off, however they were only 24 Hour rounds and no one really had a chance to gather the money to afford waypoints yet.. hopefully with 2 week rounds that is fixed.. giving more people a chance to acquire money.

I did not do tournaments with voice communication, I did some sPVP during BWE3 with my Necro with just a basic minion build.. it was quite fun.

I did mainly WvW in BWE1 and 2 and had a blast in it, I found it really enjoyable (Except when your server is getting creamed).

I feel that in WvW the limited number of waypoints available can make it a hassle when you die, and it's quite a turn off, however they were only 24 Hour rounds and no one really had a chance to gather the money to afford waypoints yet.. hopefully with 2 week rounds that is fixed.. giving more people a chance to acquire money.

Nice and informative post Larynx. Kudos.

In WvWvW, you can create a waypoint at any point you control. Most people didn't do this, so the spawn points were at the beginning. It'll be easier once people are less ignorant.

Secondary is capture the flag. The colors indicate the team. Blue must bring the blue flag to the red stand, and vice versa. Lines indicate elevation. The flag stands are on low ground, middle point is on high ground to the flag but low ground to the other two points. The other two points are higher than both the flag and middle. The base will be about the same. The way this works. middle will be heavily contested at all times. To score with the flag, you must bring it by the enemy base, and either into the middle contested area, or the point on the highground to the flag, which is easily controlled by the enemy. Flags might be worth something like 50 pts each.

Secondary is the MOBA mechanic. Same as the other map for the icons. Purple shapes indicate high ground, the brown lines indicate the ramp up to the high ground. The dotted lines indicate where the creeps will path. Controlling the corresponding capture point will increase the damage of the creeps to other creeps by a large amount. Inside the enemy base is some sort of sphere or item that needs to be destroyed. Only creeps may damage it, and destroying it wins the game.

Has anyone seen these gear upgrades? I couldn't find anything except the "starter" sPvP gear.

Also, nice post. Good job.

Yeah, here's a video with some:

---------- Post added 2012-07-26 at 05:55 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Rickz

Really? How?
I have to be completely honest, I had no idea you could do this, and saw no one do it. The only waypoint that was available to me was the one in the center castle.

I didn't do WvWvW much, so I can't say with certainty. It needs to be created, I assume with supply, at a controlled keep. I don't think ALL controlled posts can support a waypoint though, like caravans for example.

As far I know you need to upgrade the keep first for it to get the spawn point

"Bill Nye: So Todd I got an offer for you. You and me. Any time. Any place. Debating science mano- a-mano. I'll bring the facts, and you bring the Vaseline. Because your ass is gonna fucking need it when I'm done whipping."

I wonder why no-one ever really "see" / reply to my posts. ._. I think my english has something to do with it. Do I sound rude? I know that in Finland we are more "directly to to point & facts and less small talk" way to speak compared to most of the Europe/America/rest of the world.

You can get gear upgrades through spending glory on chests, which the contents depend on the quality of the chest and your rank. You also get a chest every time you get a new rank. It's all random though.

All these items can be put into the PvP locker thing, they can stack, and are usable by all your characters.

And yes, Guild Lord needs to be buffed, but not in power. The reward for killing him needs to be buffed. Currently it is pointless to attempt to kill him, since doing so effectively donates all your capture points to the enemy team. A potential for 100 points isn't worth losing all that map control and getting three capped.

I enjoyed sPVP and the hotjoin PVP [the one where the maps cycle] but WvW is pretty awful. Chalking it up to a beta issue, but WvW was just too empty, too spread out and way too much PVE. Pretty sure I killed more hyleks and moose in WvW than players. -_-

I enjoyed sPVP and the hotjoin PVP [the one where the maps cycle] but WvW is pretty awful. Chalking it up to a beta issue, but WvW was just too empty, too spread out and way too much PVE. Pretty sure I killed more hyleks and moose in WvW than players. -_-

The desire for PVE alongside PVP is bizarre to me.

Hello to you too Fencers! ^^

The current problem, you could say, with WvWvW right now is disorganization, ignorance, and poor MMR matching. All of these, of course, can be assumed to be beta issues. I wouldn't judge WvWvW yet. Give it a few months after launch, then try it (preferably in an organized guild) and see if you enjoy it or not. The entire mode is meant to be focused around long term planning and battles (or at the very least small coordinated attacks), which can't really be accomplished without guilds. Some examples of how WvWvW was done right was Team Legacy on Crystal Desert (they are one of the top sPvP teams atm). It was all coordinated and focused, and they basically dominated the entire map because of one single guild knowing what to do. For example, http://teamlegacy.net/_/gw2/melee-in...revention-r526

To make a point, you shouldn't be autoattacking a gate for 30 minutes. That's not how WvWvW works.

The PvE side of WvWvW seems to be relatively minor, honestly. It's just to give more flavor. I can't really come to a conclusion on if I like this or hate it however... The PvP puzzle was fun, though.

You can get gear upgrades through spending glory on chests, which the contents depend on the quality of the chest and your rank. You also get a chest every time you get a new rank. It's all random though.

All these items can be put into the PvP locker thing, they can stack, and are usable by all your characters.

And yes, Guild Lord needs to be buffed, but not in power. The reward for killing him needs to be buffed. Currently it is pointless to attempt to kill him, since doing so effectively donates all your capture points to the enemy team. A potential for 100 points isn't worth losing all that map control and getting three capped.

that was what I was trying to say

Anyways I disagree on the lord power thing. I've tested, ele, ranger, war, guardian and thief to kill the lord and all those classes were easily able to kill the lord. A team can easily send one person over and defend both other points in pairs of 2people.

My thief was extremely good at killing the lord due to being able to shadowstep through the gate and avoiding most damage taken (not needing to take out npc) by using warping and degen.